


Magic Water Balloons

by yastaghr



Series: Scribbling is its own Language - Oneshots [6]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gaster Needs a Hug, Gen, Goopy W. D. Gaster, POV Second Person, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route - "I want to stay with you.", The Void
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-23
Updated: 2017-06-11
Packaged: 2018-10-09 20:46:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10421433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yastaghr/pseuds/yastaghr
Summary: Rescuing Gaster, because I keep having him freed and he needs to get that way somehow.





	1. Chapter 1

Grey. The color permeated everything here. The walls, the floor, the ceiling - as much as any of the vague grey distance could be called a wall, or a floor, or a ceiling. When you looked down, it colored your hand, particles of grey slipping into the folds of skin. It didn’t feel like dust; nor did it feel like ash or smoke. It felt...grey. You wondered if you were pulled into a fight, would your soul be grey too?

  


You shook the thought away. You reminded yourself why you came here today. The device in your other hand sent out a warming beacon, and just for a moment, you felt it. Not grey, not hope, not even determination. No, this feeling was one you’d discovered Underground, one the humans you’d known before had never showed you. 

  


It was there when Toriel baked you a pie and read you stories about snails. It was there when Asgore let you help in the garden and brewed you tea. It was there when Papyrus...well, pretty much whenever Papyrus did anything - he was just that cool. It was there when Alphys and Undyne snuck you pocky during anime marathons. It was there when Sans stacked ‘dogs on your head and stood up to Miss Linda for you. It was there when Asriel hid behind you during a scary movie and helped you stick glowy stars above your bed. It was there when Chara punched the school bully in the face and taught you how to crochet.

  


The thought of finally helping everyone out of the Underground - it filled you with love, not LOVE. Just like Sans always said.

  


You started walking. You’d never been very fast, but in the grey place it felt like you hardly moved at all. Still, you knew that if you kept walking long enough, you’d find something. It had worked so far, so why not now?

  


Soon enough, you reached a place. It was still grey, but it felt different. There was the potential for something to happen. You called out.

  


Ahead of you, a melted shape phased into existence. You recognised it as Doctor W.D. Gaster, the former Royal Scientist and a friend you’d met here before. His black body was startling in the expanse of grey. He was huddled up - or maybe pooled? His body looked more like melted jello than it did draped fabric. Anyway, he wasn’t happy. In your expert opinion, he looked like a little kid who got lost in the amusement park and couldn’t find his mom all day. He was breathing hard and shivering.

  


You carefully set the device down on the ground. It beeped when you pressed the button, then unfolded and spread its legs across the grey floor. Pale yellow-grey magic misted out of the top. Alphys’s device was working perfectly.

  


You turned back to the shivering monster. His cracked skull was facing you and the device now. He looked confused with maybe a little bit of fear under a boatload of curiosity. A white hand wriggled out from under his black coat. It had five phalanged digits and a hole in the palm. You were happy to see you had remembered correctly.

  


The hand floated down and poked the device. Another spritz of magic shot out, coating the hand. It flinched back. He brought it back up near his face. turning it over to examine every bit. A thin coating of magic was seeping into it, just like Alphys wanted. He looked puzzled, then excited. His eye lights glowed as he turned his gaze to you. 

  


You nodded back, happy to confirm that you had kept your promise. He smiled almost as wide as Sans. You were excited to see how that particular skeleton would react. Gaster had made you promise not to tell Sans you were trying to rescue him until he was out safe. You’d agreed, but wondered why he thought is was so important. Sans was always messing around in his basement - surely he could have helped? Or maybe Gaster thought Sans would get worried and make you stop. 

  


You didn’t think he would, but Gaster could be weird about some things. That was fine, so could you. You had reset time on a regular basis to rescue a centuries dead goat monster that didn’t have a soul and wanted to kill you over and over again. You weren’t one to call someone else out on their life choices.

  


Gaster had finished coating both his hands and both his feet in Alphys’ magic while you were thinking. The yellow-green mix made the grey shy away, kinda like Napstablook in public. You made a note to tell them about it later. 

  


You bent down and picked up the device. Gaster eyed it. You pushed it at him. He took it reluctantly, then slowly lifted it above his head as you gestured at him. You told him to press the green button, and he did. A giant water balloon filled with magic and then dropped on his skull. He blinked as it ran down his body and soaked in. You held down a laugh magnificently. 

  


The grey background at the edges of his body peeled back. You didn’t know how to describe what you saw beneath it, but you decided quickly that you didn’t want to stick around and find out. You grabbed his hand and told him firmly that it was time to go. He looked down at the weird way the floor was trying to undo itself and agreed. 

  


He zoomed away, back towards the grey place you came from (as opposed to the grey place he lived in). He didn’t seem to be running, exactly, but since it was faster than your own running speed you decided not to object. Anyways, flapping along behind him like this reminded you of training with Undyne, and what could be more fun than that?

  


You felt the door appear less than a second before he ran into it. Both of you blinked. He took one look behind you, tore the door open, and dragged you through. The two of you tumbled out and into the opposite wall. The wooden door shut behind you like always, then folded itself until the entire corridor was someplace far away. You wondered if it would ever come back. You didn’t think so. 

  


You looked back over at him. Doctor Gaster was rubbing his hands along the wall and the floor greedily, hungrily, desperately. You watched as purple tears rolled down his face. You decided to give him a moment before you told him that Toriel was waiting a few feet away. You hoped she wouldn’t come running at the noise. Had there been a noise when the door unmade itself? The world might never know. You certainly didn’t.

  
  
  



	2. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to ignore this section. I just felt the need to write it. 
> 
> Relationship featured: Sanster (Gaster/Sans)
> 
> No Warnings apply.

Toriel knew it was inevitable that Sans would hear. Her child might be an amazing young human who defied the impossible, but monsters were notorious gossips. Someone would talk. Not to Sans, no. But the event was inevitable. He heard.

 

The part that she could not quite put together was how Sans had learned which room in the hospital Gaster was staying in. Very few people were aware of that. Then again, Sans was well known for his ability to learn even the best-kept secret. This would not have been a challenge.

 

The nursing staff in charge of Gaster’s recovery had given her enough warning to bring Frisk and Papyrus with her to the room. Frisk, as Ambassador and rescuer of the goopy skeleton, had a vested interest in the proceedings. Papyrus, obviously, was Sans’ brother. He was also one of the few monsters who could talk Sans out of a rage, and since no one knew what relation he had to Gaster and why the scientist had asked that he not be told, Papyrus’ skill might be needed.

 

Unfortunately, Asgore had been at the embassy when Toriel had gone to pick up Frisk. She still had not forgiven him for what he had done, but she could not prevent him from following them. Thus, it was a full party that stood witness to the scene in Gaster’s recovery room.

 

Sans was just standing in the doorway, staring. There was no way to tell how long he had been standing there. Both he and Gaster were fixed. In fact, they stayed that way, just staring, for long enough that Toriel began to wonder if Sans was broken.

 

Then in an instant Sans was in the room. His hands worked their way through every small object on the table by the door, hurling them at Gaster with not a twitch in his expression. Both eyes remained dark, and every hit landed. Gaster let it. Toriel knew he had substantial HP, but it wasn’t until a few throws had landed that she realized not one HP was being taken. Sans had no intention to hurt him. Admittedly, that was an odd thing to say of someone hurling objects at considerable speed.

 

When he was down to a gifted bowl of fruit sent by the wandering female lovebirds, Sans’ stony expression finally broke down. Two blue tears leaked down his skull, then another, then another, then a solid stream of tears cascaded down his face. 

 

His voice started as well, so low and deep that Toriel could barely make out what he said. When she did, she could hardly believe it. Sans was scolding the scientist, calling him stupid, an idiot, a clumsy buffoon.

 

Toriel was about to intervene when Sans dropped the final pear and collapsed to his knees. Through the sobbing, she made out a few words.

 

“why’d you do it, huh? you just- i was right there, and you- you- you fell. i couldn’t- i can’t- you left me!”

 

At that point words failed him. Sans wrapped his arms around his chest and started rocking. Wordlessly, Gaster unwrapped the blanket wrapped around his shoulders and held out his arms. When Sans looked up from his sobbing long enough to see, he was scrambling his way over and into Gaster’s goopy ribcage. 

 

The sight was odd. Sans fit almost perfectly in Gaster’s pelvis. Only one arm was left outside the huddle, and that was held and rubbed soothingly by Gaster himself. He let Sans blubber like that, surrounded and occasionally oozed on by void goop, for almost half an hour. He didn’t seem bored or perturbed, although chagrined and guilty he most certainly was. 

 

When Sans finally stopped sobbing - his voice had given up, but the tears hadn’t - he crawled out of the cavity, using Gaster’s ribs as handholds, and, perching on Gaster’s clavicles, planted a fierce kiss on the scientist’s mouth.

 

Her paw snapped out to cover Frisk’s eyes in an instant, but not before they’d caught a clear eyeful of what was going on. She saw the blush on Asgore’s face spread. Papyrus seemed more amazed and confused than anything. She herself was amused. Sans was obviously glad to have his lover back. She was glad they hadn’t tried to keep them apart any longer. 


End file.
